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| The Double Comet and Tlaloc as the Great Srar |
Another Aztec photography from the INAH Museum in Mexico City. A monster of horror [are they skulls across his back and tail, probably so. It is blowing on the remnants of a conch shell trumpet used for certain ceremonies during the year. Above his head are two types of star forms, One is very prominent with the face and fangs of Tlaloc, the blue god of rains that brought fire to the earth.
The other border iconography may represent the twin comet, since the monster below is blowing on a conch shell trumpet of death [indicated by the dripping blood and the strange cut-out design of the shell itself]. There are also a row of white icons along the back and tail of this sky monster with a very strong, but general, impression of death, or skulls.
Comets and meteorites have been recorded with the sounds of a roaring wind, described by a gentleman in Australia, as a "bull-roarer caused by swinging a gasoline-soaked rag on a stick very fast around one's head." The sound is frightening to the uninitiated, who have seen meteorites in the sky, but never had one pass close enough that they could hear such sounds.
A year or so ago, our northwest coast had such a noisy comet or comets in Oregon and southern Canada. The sound and the light from the comet[s] seemed to be 100's of modern transformers exploding all at once. Since it was before dawn, people were awakened by the light even when their blinds were shut tight. House animals "fled to their masters' bedrooms and crept under their beds; children thought it was Tyrannosaurus Rex walking the earth, like the movies; even the adults were frightened of the noises that came from the "conch shell," but only the moaning, roaring noises; definitely from something no one had ever experienced previously.
The newspapers only mentioned it once or twice, while the TV News did the same. Once it was explained as a comet that came too near the earth, no one thought much about it, except to say, "It was a little too close for comfort, but thank Heavens, it did no damage and no one got killed." The people all went on with their lives. In the olden days, when there were no radios, TVs or other types of rapid communications, other than word of mouth, it became an event to tell their grandchildren, who were in awe of the tales their grandparents told around the fire during the long winter nights before sleep came.
Embellished with other words and a great variety of actions, the tale spread from one to another until it became a part of a great epic adventure with no official history to verify it. Anything that might have been historic was pushed into the background as fears of primitive underworlds, or as "prophecies" about the end of the world. Such is the world we live in.
